Snail on the Trail

It was a very educational walk that we were on. At the start we had learnt all about the use of heather as a very weatherproof roofing material, on top of that reconstructed farm worker's cottage from the last century. Now we got to appreciate what a fine bedding material it makes.

Traditionally rocks are good places to rest, as they get you off the damp ground and give you an elevated view. However, they are normally a bit hard. Not so when they have a really thick hat of heather on the top, such as this one.

As we climbed on top for a rest, the heather was so thick and springy that we sank right into it, which is why you'll have to look hard to see us in our next picture.

The heather bed was so warm and comfortable that it was hard to stay awake. An afternoon nap beckoned, or it would have done, if 2 minders hadn't threatened to leave without us.

We didn't regret being summoned to complete the yellow trail though, as it had a delightful finish, with the path running bedside a stream with water gardens alongside. Someone had put a lot of work into cultivating the gardens and they were every bit as good a place to rest by as that heather bed.

Not that we wanted to rest now, as there were too many interesting finds, just like this one.

What a marvellous snail he was, and he fitted into his surroundings so well. He seemed very contented, but then he was living in a rather delightful spot.

There was one thing guaranteed to draw us away from the riverside walk and that was the promise of a cream tea at the tea rooms. Do you need to ask whether it was a good cream tea? Well just look at Rosa for the answer ...

... it was so good it completely blew her away.

We thoroughly recommend a visit to Gleninchaquin Park if you're ever in the area.

Lots of love Patrick, George, Yorkie & Rosa xxx

We Choose Yellow

Sorry for the recent blog silence, but we've all been off having a wonderful time at the Greenbelt arts festival. We've reported from Greenbelt several times, so many of you will know how special Greenbelt is to us.

But back to Ireland, and more specifically the beautiful Gleninchaquin Park. As we said last time, there are a number of waymarked trails to choose from, and we chose the yellow one, a fairly high level 4 hour route.

But first we had to get to the start, and this involved a heart pumping climb which we thought would never end.

We did get a chance to recover our breath when we reached this lovely lake, which provided not only something beatiful to look at, but also a nice, big, flat rock to rest on.

It was only a temporary rest though, as our path continued to climb, until we got almost to the height of the hill tops you see at the back of the photo.

At this point we reached the official start of the yellow walk; up til now we'd been following markers for the shorter red route, which, at the point it met the yellow route, was about to descend. Despite the hard climb, we were by no means ready to go back yet, so it was full steam ahead on the yellow route.

As you can see from the sign, at this point we were already 1 hour into our walk, with just 3 hours left to go.

You will also see, from this photo, and our next one, that we had all this lovely scenery almost all to ourselves. There were only 2 other people on the route while we were there.

We were quite reliant on the yellow paint blob markers on the rocks, as there wasn't really a path on the ground. However, as there was always a yellow blob in sight we weren't in any real danger of getting lost.

Our way undulated a fair bit, but the hard climbing was over. We stopped for lunch at a spot which gave us a great view over the terrain we had just walked ...

... at the back of the photo you can see the lake we'd rested at before walking all along the ridge to the left of the picture.

The chaps were very pleased with me for showing them that there are some good walking opportunities in Ireland if you know where to look. And it wasn't over yet; we were only half way round.

Back soon,

Lots of love Patrick & friends xxx

It's Got an Exotic Name

My friends and fellow travellers were rather surprised at the lack of public footpaths in Ireland. They struggled with the fact that they could see wonderful mountains just waiting to be climbed, but couldn't just get out there and climb them, as most of the land is private. This is of course very different to what they're used to in England.

I was keen to show them, that there are ways of enjoying a good walk in Ireland and so, I took them to a really special place, Gleninchaquin Park.

This is an award winning farm and park which offers a variety of different way marked walks through some truly breath taking scenery. True there is a modest admission charge, but for that you get car parking, toilets, a tea room, a friendly welcome and a choice of well planned and maintained walks to suit just about everyone. And the cost was no more than the National Trust charge for car parking at a local beauty spot near to our Norfolk home.

And there is more to the walks than simply lovely scenery. There is a lot of interesting local history. One of the first stops on the yellow trail that we did, was to see a farm restoration project. What we went to see was an old crofter's dwelling from the 18th century. There was an information board telling us lots of interesting information about how people managed to scrape a living from the land (have you spotted us amongst the greenery?)

It told us that in the 18th century there were over 100 people living in the valley, in houses just like the one we are about to show you. Now only 2 people live there; we think this is rather sad.

Having read about the house, we went to see it. The entrance was perfect for us vertically challenged bears, but our minders found it quite low. It was a very simple dwelling with just one room and we think it would have been quite cold most of the year. No doubt sharing it with animals would have helped keep the occupiers warm though.

We've loads more to tell you about our walk, so we'll be back soon.

Lots of love Patrick and friends xxx